Template:Expand section

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Usage

Place this template at the beginning of article sections that need expansion, after that section's title. You can use this template in the Main/Article or Wikipedia namespaces.

As of August 2016, this template only uses the "article message box" (Ambox) style; this will be fixed in the future.

Recommended use is with a talk page link explaining what is needed and especially any justification for your judgement.

Note: {{sect-stub}} is a shortcut used for consistency with other cleanup templates.

{{Expand section
 | 1           = (or with= or for=)
 | section     = (section number)
 | small       = no (default is "yes")
 | talksection = (link with NO brackets, "[[]]"; displays only if small=no)
 | date        = Month YYYY
 | period      = <!--no--> (included after the input for "1=" from above by default - use this only in instances where terminal punctuation should be placed before a reference)
}}

or inline short form

{{Expand section | 1 = (or with= or for=) | section = (section number) | small = no (default is "yes") | talksection= (or talk= or discuss=) | date= }}

Parameters

This template may be used without parameters, and a BOT will add the date when necessary.

date=

The current month and year can be used in the |date= parameter. This will add the page to a sub-category sorted by date used (see the Categorisation section of this page for more information:

{{Expand section|date=August 2025}}

or

{{Expand section|{{subst:DATE}}}}

results in:

section=

The |section= parameter is used to link to the edit screen of the article's section in which this template is placed. If this template is placed in the second section after the TOC, then use |section=2:

{{Expand section|section=2|{{subst:DATE}}}}

results in:

and links to the edit screen for the second section of the page after the TOC.

1=, with=, or for=

An unnamed parameter, |1= (or one of the named parameters, |with= or |for=), may be used to explain what expansion is needed in the section:

{{Expand section|1=examples and additional citations|section=1|date=August 2025}}

results in:

When multiple expansion issues need to be raised, explain them in a new section on the article's discussion page, and use the next two parameters for reader convenience.

small= and talksection=

The default for the |small= parameter is "yes", which means that if this parameter is omitted, then the size of the tag will default to the sizes shown above. Use |small=no to result in a larger section tag and to enable the |talksection= parameter (|talk= or |discuss= may also be used):

{{Expand section|1=examples and additional citations|section=1|date=August 2025|small=no|talksection=Template talk:Expand section#When should this template be used?}}

results in:

Categorisation

When {{Expand section}} is used without a |date= parameter in an article in the main article namespace, the article is sorted to Category:Articles to be expanded. A bot or an editor will then add the date parameter, and the article will be sorted to a category with a name that reflects the date given. For example, if the |date=August 2025 is used, the article will be added to Category:Articles to be expanded from August 2025.

No matter what parameters are used with this template, it also adds the article to Category:All articles to be expanded.

Choosing the right template

For an empty section

If the section is completely empty, the {{Empty section}} template should be used instead of this template.

The exception would be an empty section used for references as explained in the following subsection.

For a References or Notes section

When the section that needs expansion is used to list cited sources, then either {{No footnotes}} or {{More footnotes needed}} should be used instead of {{Empty section}} or {{Expand section}}.

Note: Unlike the other templates mentioned, those "footnotes" templates should go at the beginning/TOP of the page, just under any hatnotes, rather than at the beginning of a section.

In the main article namespace, citing sources is an important part of the article, performed by using the tags, <ref></ref>, which in turn are collected and formatted into text in the section containing the {{Reflist}} template or the <references /> tag. This section (or sub-section, as might be the case if the sources are listed separately) is often titled "References", and can have other names.

If the article has a section that contains either {{Reflist}} or <references />, the section can still appear blank on the saved, rendered page if the article has no text within <ref></ref> tags. Such a section is still considered blank, even though the template or tag wikitext can be seen in Edit mode. In that case the {{No footnotes}} template should be used at the TOP of the page just beneath any hatnotes.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools; see the monthly parameter usage report for this template.

TemplateData for Expand section

Can be placed at the beginning of article sections that need expansion, after the section title.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Reason	1 with for	Reason the template was added, an explanation of what expansion the section needs. A bulleted list with lines beginning '*' can be given.	Content	optional
Terminal punctuation	period punctuation	If set to 'no', this parameter omits the terminal punctuation after the input for the 'with'/'for' parameter (i.e., the reason the template was added); this is normally only used if references are included after terminal punctuation. Default yes Example no Auto value	Boolean	optional
Talk section	talksection discuss talk	A section heading in the talk page where the issue is discussed. Note: The talksection parameter only displays if the parameter small is set to 'no'.	String	optional
Month and year	date	The month and year the template was added, e.g. 'July 2017'. Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	String	suggested
Small	small	By default the template will be displayed in a small size. This can be changed by setting small to no. Not recommended in articles. Default yes Example no Auto value	Boolean	optional
Section	section	Section number of the section with the template	Number	optional

See also

• {{Clarify}} and {{Explain}} (both inline)
• {{Incomplete list}}
• {{Empty section}}
• {{Missing information}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Expand section/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.